Follow these tips to find classes taught by the best professors.
Heading into a new semester? Make sure you set yourself on the right path to business or graduate school by selecting classes relevant to your chosen career goals.
How to plan your course schedule for college
- Know your course requirements. If you’re thinking about or have already declared a major, look at the total credits you need to graduate and divide that by the total semesters left in your college career. Chances are you have a lot of required classes and categories of classes from which you’ll need to take a specified number. It is much easier to work backwards from a defined goal than to plan your semesters without knowing the road ahead.
- Research your options. Put on your detective hat and do some research into what classes to take and who to take them with. Websites like Rate My Professors can be helpful in making successful course selection choices. Yes, you have to fill your course schedule with certain requirements—but wouldn’t it be better if you actually enjoyed it as well? Taking the time to be picky with professors will lead you to a better learning experience in which you actually retain the information and get the most out of it.
- Use your college resources. Some universities offer web portals or databases that detail course offerings by professor and the average distribution of grades in the course. For example, you may be able to see that in the most recent marketing course offered by a certain professor, 36% of 300 students earned an A. Although such information—if available—is invaluable for planning ahead, don’t rely solely on this to choose your classes and professors. There may not be much information available on new professors who could end up being your favorite. Another tip is to reach out to friends and fellow students to get a personal take on classes and professors. Yes, a class might be easy—but if it is the most boring class in the world, you might want to look for another option.
- Balance your course schedule. Offset challenging courses with some easier ones so you don’t overwhelm yourself. If you struggle with math, don’t schedule all of your math requirements in a single semester. Remember, you have more going on in your life than taking classes—and it is not practical or healthy to spend all your free time doing schoolwork. If you’re taking 15 hours, or five 3-credit classes in one semester, strike a balance between two more difficult classes, an intermediate one, and two classes that fall on the easier side. Easier classes can also give you the opportunity to take a class on a topic you are interested in or want to learn more about.
Grades are an important consideration when applying to business or graduate school, but actually learning something in your classes and planning your course schedule accordingly will best prepare you for your future career.
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